STOCKTON — It was tough sledding early on for Northgate on Friday in the 12-and-Under Section 6 Little League championships at Hoover-Tyler Little League. Then Northgate was forced to recover from a gut-wrenching call at the plate to bounce back and down tournament host Hoover Tyler 5-4 in seven innings in the consolation final and faces Amador-East this afternoon at 5:30 in the championship round.
Trailing 4-3 in the fifth inning, Northgate’s Tristan O’Brien singled to lead off the frame, took second and scored on Dylan Quinton’s one-out double that went in and out of the right fielder’s glove in the corner to tie the game. Due to tournament rules, Grant Adams started the seventh on second base, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out error off the bat of Isaac Aguilar for the 5-4 lead.
Hoover-Tyler started the bottom of the seventh with a runner on second as well, but he would get no further. O’Brien, who pitched 3.1 innings of one-hit, shutout ball, struck out the first Hoover-Tyler batter of the frame for his third strikeout, induced a pop fly to second bringing Mason Scott to the plate. Scott launched a towering fly ball to left field where Max Ussery jockeyed for position under it multiple times before pulling in the final out of the game.
Northgate scored one run in the third and fifth innings. Colton Coenenberg opened the fifth inning by beating out an infield single, took second on a passed ball, stole third thanks to some nifty footwork and came home on a single by Isaac Aguilar.
The third inning was the heart-breaking inning. Aguilar singled to start the frame and went to third on an error. He scored on a single by Aldo Miramontes (2 for 2, RBI, run) who worked his way around to third base with one out. Hunter Reynolds hit a slow grounder to first and was forced out, bringing Miramontes home to try to score. Unfortunately for Miramontes, the umpire was not in position to see the high tag, called Miramontes out and refused to ask for help from the other umpires.
Northgate went down in order to start the first, and Hoover-Tyler took advantage of what it was offered, scoring three runs behind five walks, a single and an error. Aguilar helped right the Northgate ship in the second inning, striking out the side in order in the second and allowing just one more run until he yielded to O’Brien in the fourth.
11-under
Ripon 6, Tracy American 5
TURLOCK – Ripon punched its ticket to tonight’s championship game with a 6-5 win over Tracy American on Sunday at Julien Elementary School. Ripon plays Turlock American tonight at 7 in the championship round.
Lucas Durao paced the Ripon attack, going 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles. Jacob Petersen knocked in three runs and Glavin Cloward one for Ripon. Dylan Jasper was 2 for 2. Cloward and Elias Sandoval each stole multiple bases with Ripon stealing six bases.
Ripon 6, Delta Sunrise 1
Ripon’s Petersen drove in four runs behind a grand-slam home run in the second inning and pitched the first three innings, allowing no runs while striking out six and allowing three hits with a walk. Sandoval, Ben Boling and Derek Ponce each threw shutout innings in relief.
Cloward singled in a run in the first inning and had two hits as did Petersen.
10-under
Ripon 5, Turlock American 3
Ripon downed Turlock American in the consolation final Monday at Brock Elliott and will face Linden this afternoon at 5:30 in the championship round.
Ripon scored four first-inning runs behind a two-run Austin Gutierrez single, River Knotos getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and a Grayson Campbell groundout.
Jack Painted started on the mound for Ripon, giving up two hits and two runs over 4.2 innings, striking out four and walking four. Luke Jasper threw 1.2 innings on no-run-no-hit ball in relief with one strikeout and two walks.
Ripon’s Titus De La Torre was 2 for 3.
